Website not loading? How to diagnose and fix it in 15 minutes

Your website is not loading and you do not know why. This guide walks through every possible cause in order of likelihood, with the exact steps to confirm and fix each one.

Step 1: Is it just you, or everyone?

Before anything else, check if the issue is local or global.

Visit: downforeveryoneorjustme.com and enter your domain.

If it is down for everyone → proceed to server/DNS diagnosis below.

If it is only down for you → the problem is on your device or network:

• Clear your browser cache (Ctrl+Shift+Delete)
• Try a different browser
• Try an incognito/private window
• Try a different network (turn off WiFi and use mobile data)
• Flush your DNS: ipconfig /flushdns (Windows) or sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder (Mac)

Step 2: What error are you seeing?

ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED — the server is not accepting connections on port 80/443. Web server (NGINX/Apache) is down.

ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED — DNS is not resolving. Your domain's DNS is broken or propagating.

ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR / SSL_ERROR_RX_RECORD_TOO_LONG — SSL certificate issue.

500 Internal Server Error — server-side error in your application code.

503 Service Unavailable — server is up but the application is overloaded or crashed.

504 Gateway Timeout — the web server is up but the backend (PHP-FPM, Node.js) is not responding.

403 Forbidden — file permissions issue or IP blocked.

404 Not Found — the URL is wrong or the rewrite rules are broken.

Step 3: Diagnosing a server-side outage

If you have a cPanel hosting account:

1. Log into cPanel directly via yourdomain.com:2083 or your host's server hostname

   • If cPanel loads but your site does not → Apache/web server issue
   • If cPanel does not load → server may be down, contact your host

2. Check cPanel → Apache Status (if available)

3. Check disk quota: cPanel → Disk Usage. A full disk causes 500 errors on many configurations.

4. Check error logs: cPanel → Errors (shows the last few Apache error log lines)

For VPS users:

# Check if NGINX is running
sudo systemctl status nginx

# Check if Apache is running
sudo systemctl status apache2

# Restart web server
sudo systemctl restart nginx

Step 4: DNS diagnosis

If you recently changed nameservers or DNS records, propagation delay is likely.

Check if your domain resolves:

nslookup yourdomain.com 8.8.8.8

If this returns an IP → DNS is resolving at Google. The issue is elsewhere. If this fails → DNS is broken. Check your nameserver settings at your registrar.

Check what IP your domain resolves to versus your actual server IP:

dig yourdomain.com +short
# Compare with your actual server IP from cPanel or your VPS dashboard

If they do not match → your A record is pointing to the wrong server.

Step 5: SSL certificate issues

Common SSL errors and fixes:

Certificate expired:

• cPanel → SSL/TLS Status → check expiry date
• If expired, go to cPanel → SSL/TLS → Let's Encrypt → renew
• Or contact your host's support

Certificate is for a different domain:

• Your domain points to a server where the SSL certificate covers a different domain
• Install the correct SSL certificate or fix the DNS

Mixed content warning (not a loading failure, but a browser warning):

• Your site loads over HTTPS but some resources (images, scripts) are referenced over HTTP
• Install "Really Simple SSL" plugin for WordPress
• Or search/replace http://yourdomain.com with https://yourdomain.com in your database

WordPress-specific: the most common causes

500 error after plugin update:

1. Rename the problem plugin folder via FTP/File Manager: wp-content/plugins/plugin-name → plugin-name-disabled
2. Refresh the site — if it loads, that plugin is the issue
3. Or add define('WP_DEBUG', true); to wp-config.php to see the actual PHP error

White Screen of Death (WSOD): Usually a PHP fatal error. Enable debug mode to see the error.

WordPress redirect loop: Usually caused by Flexible SSL mode with HTTPS forced in WordPress settings. Fix: set SSL mode to Full or Full(strict) in your CDN/Cloudflare settings.

After migrating to a new domain or server: Update siteurl and home in the database:

UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = 'https://newdomain.com' WHERE option_name = 'siteurl';
UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = 'https://newdomain.com' WHERE option_name = 'home';

Or use WP-CLI:

wp option update siteurl 'https://newdomain.com'
wp option update home 'https://newdomain.com'

Step 6: Check your .htaccess

A corrupted or invalid .htaccess file causes 500 errors on Apache. Test by renaming it:

Via FTP/File Manager: rename public_html/.htaccess to .htaccess_backup and refresh.

If the site loads → your .htaccess was the problem. Restore WordPress's default:

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

Step 7: Check if your IP is blocked

Some firewalls automatically block IPs after repeated failed login attempts.

Test from a different network (mobile data). If your site loads on mobile but not your home WiFi → your home IP may be blocked.

Fix in cPanel → IP Blocker (remove your IP), or if using Cloudflare, check Security → Events for blocked IPs.

When to contact your host

Contact support if:

• The server itself is unreachable (cPanel/SSH both fail)
• The error log shows "Out of memory" or disk full
• You see database connection errors you cannot fix
• The issue started without any changes on your end

When contacting support, provide:

• The exact error message and error code
• The URL affected
• When it started
• What changed right before (plugin updates, DNS changes, etc.)
• A screenshot of the error

VillageHosting support is available on WhatsApp — send the error and we will diagnose it within the hour.